


Hos Oikeia

by Elenchus



Category: The Odyssey - Homer
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2014-10-21
Packaged: 2018-02-22 01:11:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2488931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenchus/pseuds/Elenchus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: Car breaks down in the middle of nowhere AU</p><p>"The sign on the building – Alcinous’ Home and Garden Supplies – tickled something in Telemachus’ memory, a name half-remembered from one of his father’s stories. A friend? Someone he’d helped? Or someone he’d cheated out of their family heirlooms and had to run from at the point of a shotgun? You never knew with Odysseus, that was the trouble."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hos Oikeia

Things could have been substantially worse – had been substantially worse in the past, Telemachus reminded himself as he trudged through overgrown weeds towards the one bright point in sight. At least this time his bike had broken down near civilization of some sort. It had been hours since he’d had reliable cell service, but the map he kept in his pack told him that he couldn’t be a more than a few miles from town.

Telemachus could walk a few miles. He could even walk a few miles in the dark on a cold night, through grass so dense that walking felt more like swimming. He could, but he very much hoped he wouldn’t have to. With any luck, the light ahead would be the outskirts of town, and he’d be able to find a motel to spend the night in and call AAA from in the morning.

He pressed forward, ignoring the burrs getting caught in his socks, until he was close enough to make out the building the light belonged to. Unfortunately, he was also close enough to see that the building stood alone, with nothing else into the visible horizon. _Damn_.

The sign on the building – _Alcinous’ Home and Garden Supplies –_ tickled something in Telemachus’ memory, a name half-remembered from one of his father’s stories. A friend? Someone he’d helped? Or someone he’d cheated out of their family heirlooms and had to run from at the point of a shotgun? You never knew with Odysseus, that was the trouble.

Telemachus looked again onto the empty – and pathless – horizon. It _was_ cold, and he was tired, and he’d begun to fantasize about returning to the fields with a flamethrower. He made his decision; after all, nothing said he had to tell them his name, or his father’s. There’d been plenty of times in his past it had been convenient to quietly be someone else (even if Aunt Helen always told him he had Odysseus’ face stamped across his plain as could be).

He rang the doorbell, silently praying that the light in the upstairs window meant that someone was awake. Preferably someone who wouldn’t take nighttime visitors as a threat best greeted down the barrel of a gun. Telemachus was fairly sure he could talk down any threat, but he was too tired to enjoy the idea.

The silence lasted long enough that Telemachus nearly walked away. Either they were all asleep, or someone was unlocking a well-secured gun cabinet. At last the door opened, revealing the prettiest woman Telemachus could ever remember seeing. She certainly didn’t look frightened or violent; she was staring at him with a mix of curiosity and consideration.

“Uh,” he said, skillfully. “I. Hello. That is. You’re not going to shoot me?”

“I hadn’t planned on it. Is that a disappointment?” Her eyes sparkled, and Telemachus tried to tell himself the fluttering in his stomach was fatigue.

“Oh, no. I don’t like being shot at. Not that it happens often, but, well, a few times is too many, you know? You decide quickly about that sort of thing.” Unfortunately, she didn’t step in to stop him from rambling. She was smiling at him, and he couldn’t figure out whether it was friendly or mocking. Perhaps both? He ran a hand through his hair and forced himself back on track. “My bike broke down a little ways back. I was hoping I could, uh, use your phone? And maybe you could show me where we are on a map?”

She looked him up and down once and then gave him a proper smile – not mocking at all this time, but inviting him to share in some joke with her. “Well, at least you’re not naked. That’s a good start, I suppose”

Oh. Alcinous had been _that_ story.

Telemachus _definitely_ wasn't telling this girl his father's name.


End file.
